1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information display system and method, which are capable of displaying circuit information and/or mount information based on PCB-CAD data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software for browsing the content of data file is called as a viewer, and various type viewers are given. For example, one of the viewers is a circuit-diagram viewer for browsing circuit diagrams based on computer aided design (CAD) data of a printed circuit board (PCB). Another is a layout-diagram viewer for browsing the layout diagram of a circuit board. The foregoing circuit and layout-diagram viewers are provided and are used independently from each other.
JPN. PAT. APPLN. KOKAI Publication No. 7-262241 (e.g., FIG. 6) discloses the technique of displaying the mutual relationship between components and board when making a mount design of a printed circuit board.
However, the conventional technique described above has the following problem. More specifically, the circuit-diagram viewer and the layout-diagram viewer exist independently from each other. For this reason, it is difficult to grasp the corresponding relationship of components and wirings (including signal lines, power source/ground plane) in the foregoing circuit-diagram and layout-diagram viewers. For example, the ground plane on the circuit diagram is shown by symbol only; as a result, it is difficult to grasp where the ground plane is mapped on the layout diagram.
In addition, the foregoing Publication discloses the technique of simultaneously displaying several kinds of diagrams on one screen. This is the technique used under the environment for making a design, and thus, not suitable for browsing the diagrams. In other words, the technique disclosed in the foregoing Publication is not adaptable to circuit-diagram and layout-diagram viewers existing independently from each other.
From the reason described above, it is desired to propose the technique of readily grasping the corresponding relationship of components in different kinds of viewers.